Episode 251: Should I reward the smallest try…or expect more?

Episode 251_ Should I reward the smallest try…or expect more_.mp3: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix

Episode 251_ Should I reward the smallest try…or expect more_.mp3: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.

Speaker1:
Subtle shouldn't mean incomplete to your horse. But if you're not careful, that's what you'll accidentally teach.

Speaker2:
Podcasting from a little cabin on a hill. This is the Stacy Westfall podcast. Stacy's goal is simple to teach you to understand why horses do what they do, as well as the action steps for creating clear, confident communication with your horses.

Speaker1:
Hi, I'm Stacy Westfall and I'm here to help you understand, enjoy, and successfully train your own horses. In this season of the podcast, I've been answering questions that your mind may offer you as you're out training your horse. Sometimes these won't show up exactly like questions. Today I'm discussing a topic where I think the question, if it did show up, is going to sound a little bit like, Am I being fair? Am I asking for too much? But oftentimes it shows up as very slow progress. And when you have very slow progress, oftentimes riders will wonder if they're doing something wrong or somehow confusing their horse. So this is how I'm going to summarize this topic, even though it might not be how you hear it in your own head. It is the balance between do I reward the smallest try or do I require the final answer? In my world, both of these are true at different times. Early in training or early in introducing a new concept to the horse, I think it's an excellent idea to reward the smallest try. If the horse is consistently rewarded for the small things that are all headed in a particular direction, it will generally get you more of that behavior. But here's the question When do you start expecting the full answer? This is where people often get stuck. So the first thing is to understand the big problem that comes with sticking with and rewarding the smallest try. And the biggest problem that comes along with it is that the horse may get the impression that you only want a little.

Speaker1:
So let me put this into an example. Imagine that you're teaching a horse. The verbal cue. Whoa. You might say Whoa. And be okay with the fact that the horse slows and then eventually stops. Let me be even more specific. Maybe you're trotting and you say, whoa, and let's pretend your horse begins to slow down. So takes 3 or 4 more steps of jog, then breaks to a walk, takes 4 or 5 steps of walk and then comes to a halt. Technically the horse did stop off from. Whoa. The question is, is that your end goal? Answering that question matters. There's not a right or wrong. You get to decide. Some people, when they're barrel racing, use whoa to just mean rate yourself at the barrel. So how you answer the question of what your end goal is matters. If the response I just outlined to the word whoa is ideal for how you ride, then reward it and repeat it, you're already at the final answer. But if you would prefer a quicker stop, let's say a full stop within three steps or a sliding stop, then you don't want to stay in this stage for a long, long time. It doesn't mean that you have to aim for three steps right now or a sliding stop, but it does mean that you need to look for ways to reduce the total steps from 7 or 8 after you say the word whoa to something smaller.

Speaker1:
So there's a balancing act between being grateful that your horse tried, but also wanting to continue moving the horses understanding to a quicker stop. In this example, I think it's a little bit easier to understand, but in the next example, it gets a little trickier. But before I go to the next example, be very clear. A big piece of this is you understanding what you're aiming for. So if you just say better steering, that's actually not that specific. If you say better stopping, you actually need to define what your goal of a better stop is. Someone could actually want the horse to just slow down through the gate because they're not riding in an area where the footing supports a sliding stop. So just be very clear so you know what you're aiming for. So in that same way, you'll want to pay attention to your end goal in things like steering or collection. Again, one of the bigger problems with sticking with and rewarding the smallest try is that often the horse will get the impression that you only want a little bit. So let's take neck reining, for example. If your end goal is that when you neck ring your horse that they also gather their body and collect, then you're going to want to put all of that together on your way there. So, yes, you're still going to reward small tries and you're going to keep moving the target.

Speaker1:
Otherwise, what's going to happen is you're going to practice neck reining, which is not elementary school, neck reining is in high school. And if you're practicing this high school movement and you're not also asking that horse to have a collected frame, then what you need to remember is that all of the rewards that you gave for steering. So let's say you move your hand a little bit to the right and the horse steers to the right, but is also in an uncollected frame. All of those rewards that you gave there were rewarding the whole thing. This is one of the big changes that happens from elementary school to high school, and then it stays true into college. And however further you take your horse in the training, you as the rider must learn to reward multiple things at one time. So the good news is when you begin to see and reward and require multiple things at the same time, you'll actually be able to get the snowball rolling a little bit faster. Because on the other hand, if you work on neck reining, which is steering and you don't pay attention to the collection, what happens is you'll teach the horse to neck rein and that will take you hundreds of repetitions to ensure that the horse understands it. If during those hundreds of repetitions you allow the horse to be in an uncollected frame, you're also rewarding that. Whereas if you actually help and support the horse in a way that as they're learning to neck rein, which is improving steering, that you're also asking them to collect, what's going to happen is the same number of repetitions it was going to take you to get the steering now got you steering and collection.

Speaker1:
So you ultimately get more done in less time when you are working on these high school level concepts that combine really naturally. Another way to think about it is if you slightly neck rein and they slightly steer and you say, Yep, that's the answer, then the horse is going to be under the impression that slightly steering while uncollected was the main answer. I was actually just coaching a student on this inside my Resourceful Rider program, and I was explaining that she should make the request and then use the technique that I showed her to bring her horse fully into that collected frame and make the turn. And while this might seem tedious, say, the first 200 times after that, the magic begins to happen because my technique moves in a clear flow. So her horse is going to begin to feel the subtle cue and then, because of all of the repetitions, is going to understand that the subtle cue then progresses into being supported and into the final answer, and then the horse will begin to be able to see the subtle cue at the beginning and how it ties together to the final answer. And if me saying the number 200 scares you, I assure you that if you are riding ten circles each direction when you ride and you pick up to help support and steer on average, let's say four times around each circle, you will very quickly be reaching numbers like this.

Speaker1:
And this is going to fast forward your horse without taking a lot of riding time. But let's say that that same student picks up on the rein, gets a little bit of steering, but no collection. And does this 200 times the horse is going to get the impression that you only want it, a little bit of steering. And the other stuff like collection didn't matter. To be clear, it is okay to plateau. I've talked about that many times here on the podcast. Specifically, you can go back to episode 225, which is titled Calculated Plateaus in Training and Showing. And you can go back to episode 165 Mastery and the Plateau. So there are places where you plateau, but you don't want to stay there so long that the horse is under the impression that this is the final answer. There are two main thought errors that I often see keep people from asking their horse to move closer to the full answer. Thought error number one is thinking that if you are moving towards that answer, you've got to get there fast. And thought error number two is thinking that if you're making progress towards that final answer, there's probably going to have to be some sort of punishment involved.

Speaker1:
Let's look at mistake number one, thinking that you have to rush if you're actually looking at the final answer, it's just not true. When people rush, what happens is they often think that if they don't get the full answer right now, then something is going wrong. And that's not what I'm saying. What I'm offering is actually in the middle. Oftentimes people go all or nothing. They often either reward the tiniest try to the point of giving the wrong impression to the horse. The horse actually thinks the tiny try is the end goal or the person that's stuck in all or nothing thinking thinks they need to have it all happen right now. And I'm saying we need to start with the subtle cue and support the horse and show them the final answer when we're in high school. Mistake number two is thinking that getting to the final answer is going to involve some sort of punishment. And this thinking often dovetails with the first one the mistake of thinking. You need it all right now. You don't need it all. You just need to continue down the path. Ideally, the technique you use begins subtle and then moves through stages that clarify and end way closer to the final result. That way, the horse sees the subtle and then has the support and then sees the final end result. And that's the progression that gets them thinking to the final result. That means your technique matters. If your technique is quick and it brings along something like head tossing, then you need to find a smoother technique if your technique is subtle.

Speaker1:
But isn't moving you towards the full end result that you want. You also need to double check your path forward. Subtle shouldn't mean incomplete to your horse, but if you're not careful, that's what you'll accidentally teach. Let's recap. When you're introducing a new idea, reward the smallest try until they get consistent. Repeat. Give the horse feedback. I call it the warmer, colder game until they get the answer consistently correct. You're going to know because there's going to be a reduced number of mistakes. And I have recently done some podcasts on this so you can go back and find those. Also, you need to have a plan for how you're going to move forward closer to the full expression of what you want, like a better stop or improved steering. And you're going to have to be really clear about what that means about what you want. What is your definition of the stop you want? What is the definition of the steering that you want? You're going to start by rewarding the smallest try and then find a path that clearly shows the horse the final answer. And you don't have to arrive there quickly, but you will get there a lot faster if you don't accidentally give your horse the impression that you only want a little. Thanks for listening and I'll talk to you again in the next episode.

Speaker2:
If you enjoy listening to Stacy's podcast, please visit Stacy westfall.com for articles, videos and tips to help you and your horse succeed.

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